Friday, April 10, 2009

Big House Blues David Feiss - Good action and Beautiful Graphic Style

Here's some very stylish animation by Dave Feiss.Dave was a child prodigy.He completely figured out how to animate on his own by trial and error when he was a kid.He reworked his film camera so it would take still pictures on movie film, then started experimenting.He started by shooting a new frame every 12 x or so and then saw that that looked too static. He kept doing more and more frames per second and shooting it until he came to the conclusion that shooting each drawing twice, generally looked the best. (On "2's")He's a complete natural and seems to be good at anything he tries to do. He animated a few scenes in BHB.He worked from our layouts and my direction but added his own touches like the bulldog throwing punches at the boys.He was one of the first of the 80s bunch to have a combination angular and organic style at the same time.His poses are beautiful, aren't they?Ted sent in a couple of the layouts from the scene. These are what we give the animators. Thanks Ted!The voice of the bulldog was done by none other than Henry Porch, the guy who picked a lot of the music for Ren and Stimpy.Here, he read the line a little strange so I posed it out to match and Dave animated it.Dave went on to create and produce "Cow and Chicken" a couple years later, which I thought was the best drawn and animated cartoon of the 90s.

David Feiss is awesome, what he did on Cow & Chicken was pretty amazing. I just can't shake the feeling there were two different teams working on that show - some episodes were animatedly beautifully, other were pretty static. Any information on what happened there?

The first episode is still my favourite, especially Chicken's reaction in the last scene:

I actually remember watching "Cow and Chicken" when the show premiered on Cartoon Network. I used to watch CN all the tmie back then.

Cartoon Network actually aired some C&C episodes a week ago as part of an April Fools prank. Basically, they played the theme song from "Chowder", but rather than showing a Chowder episode, they aired a "Cow and Chicken" episode instead. This went on for several hours before things went back to normal.

I really like the design of the character and the poses are great, I've never seen it in freeze-frame before.

I didn't know David Feiss had worked in Ren and Stimpy until now! Now all makes sense.

Cow and Chicken was good, but some episodes had much better drawings-and scripts- than others. I Am Weasel in particular was sometimes a little boring to watch, I believe it was something about the color choices.

The pilot episode is also my favourite, it was a little more "edgy" than the rest of the series.

There was an episode of Cow and Chicken that was REALLY similar to Ren's Toothache.

My choice for best drawn cartoon of the 90s -apart from Ren and Stimpy- would probably be Dexter's Lab.

Mystery solved. I always thought, to be honest, that Cow & Chicken was the work of some pale R&S imitator.

Maybe it's to do with how budgetary constraints or second-string directors interpreted the concept or something, but the animation never sat right with me—it was R&S zaniness without any structure that I could see. You'd get these big deformed heads and scribbly expressions for no particular reason I could see, other than "That's the way John K does it." And Charlie Adler makes my brain hurt, I'm sorry.

Maybe I should give it another chance, but back when C&C was on Cartoon Network, I had a serious grudge against it for what I perceived it to be—a Cargo Culty version of Ren & Stimpy produced by a rival network desperate for a hit.

I always thought Cow and Chicken surpassed the others on Cartoon Network in animation quality. Always loved it, sadly now it's not showing anymore here in Japan. I haven't seen it for 3 years! Here in Japan Cartoon Network is basically now anime and toddler stories. I wish they would stick to one or the other, they both address the same audience, right? The tattered remnants are Dexters Lab, PPG, Foster's, and Billy and Mandy. Interspaced by hours upon hours of eye torment. And the daily golden nougat nugget: The Bugs Bunny show. Sadly though the features shown are all from the later period. I wish they would show some earlier stuff, like Clampett (I haven't seen Clampett aired once in my life) and Merrie Melodies. Not that I don't enjoy the McKimsons and others that are shown.

Dave Feiss was often used as a secret weapon by lesser hack studios because he could animate entire main title sequences by himself, which always looked far better than the shows they introduced. I think he animated the "Alf" show main titles, and we all know what that show was, for DIC.

Dave Feiss! He's also related to Sam Kieth (The Maxx), who I think is the most unique and original comic book artist throughout the past 10 years. Any word on him, John? Feiss drew a couple issues of The Maxx as well.

Sam Ren does talk when he shakes his head. he Says: Yes, Food, Shelter.But the sync is off on this clip.

Dave Feiss did the most extensive mouth charts I have ever seen on a television production. I think Cow and Chicken must have had at least 10 pages each.It was a fun show to work on.

If am Weasel seemed different it was in my opinion, because Dave tapped into the always entertaining brain of one Richard Pursel. Who if I recall correctly was responsible for many of the choices that were made on I M Weasel.

Cow and Chicken - the best drawn and animated cartoon of the 90s? Didn't Ren and Stimpy premiere in 91?

I'd have to pick R+S for the win - C+C drawings were sometimes too cold, angular, predictable and meaningless (his lip is a boxy shelf-shape - his teeth are sticking way out - so what, what does that mean?) - R+S poses always meant something, and kept you guessing what would come next.

Cow and Chicken - the best drawn and animated cartoon of the 90s? Didn't Ren and Stimpy premiere in 91?

I'd have to pick R+S for the win - C+C drawings were sometimes too cold, angular, predictable and meaningless (his lip is a boxy shelf-shape - his teeth are sticking way out - so what, what does that mean?) - R+S poses always meant something, and kept you guessing what would come next.

Cow and Chicken, the best drawn/animated 90s cartoon? Better drawn than Ren and Stimpy? (R+S premiered in 91, didn't it)?

I dunno, I always thought C+C drawings were angular, predictable and meaningless - their teeth or butts would stick way out, sure, but it never *meant* as much as a good R+S drawing - they were just solid, stylish objects moving around. To me.

I guess "solid" might be what you mean by "well drawn", but I didn't find them as interesting or meaningful.